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Jill Has Two Ponies: Abridgements

Jill Has Two Ponies was abridged, though not to such an extent as the first two books. The alterations are relatively minor, and are mostly small changes to update the text, so references to land girls are removed, and Lavender’s Blue is replaced with Thank U Very Much (though both are probably now equally impenetrable to today’s child reader). The most interesting alterations are the removal of the reference to Jill’s mother buying cigarettes, and the reduction in age of the Fisher twins from 12 to 10.

Jill’s mother’s cigarette buying at the station is replaced with a more innocuous statement about railway refreshments (though characteristic: Jill was notably keen on her food).

The age of the Fisher children, whom Jill teaches, is reduced from 12 to 10, which could be because of the difference in how children’s behaviour was perceived in the 1950s and the 1980s, or because Ruby Ferguson’s 12-year-olds were never particularly realistic. It’s an interesting point.

The illustrations were also changed. Knight used Bonar Dunlop to illustrate the book for them, and he produced 11 illustrations. The orignal was illustrated by Caney, and had 23 illustrations.

Many thanks to Hazelhunter on my old forum, who did all the work in this section, comparing the original hardback with the 1980s Knight reprint.

In the section below, the first page number is the first edition and the second number corresponds to the paperback. This list isn’t necessarily definitive: we’ve tried to be as careful as possible, but can make no guarantee about accuracy or completeness.

Text changes

General notes

Quotation marks are double in the first edition, single in the paperback.

Words such as ‘realised’ and ‘sympathised’ have been spelt with a ‘z’ e.g. ‘realized’ ‘sympathized’.

Chapter headings in the paperback have been de-capitalised.

The dedication ‘For Priscilla’ has been deleted.

JILL HAS TWO PONIES

I Meet Rapide

Pg 9/7. Forty pounds becomes sixty pounds.

Pg 14/17. Reference to ‘Land Girlish’ mode of dressing removed

‘Kirbigrip’ becomes ‘grip’.

Pg 17/15. ‘pulling a cross old lady along the front at Eastbourne in a beastly little chair’ has been changed to ‘pulling a miserable old rag and bones man’s cart’.

Pg 18/16. Forty pounds becomes sixty pounds.

Pg 18/17. ‘Lavender Blue’ becomes ‘Thank U Very Much’.

Pg 19/17. ‘Oh no but thank you very much’ changed to ‘Oh no, but it is very kind of you to ask us’.

Oh, why did I buy him?

Pg 20/18. Dialogue is removed. ‘‘Mummy said to the girl at the counter, “Have you got any cigarettes please?” but she just said coldly “No cigarettes,” though about five minutes later a young man came in and I saw her give him a packet of Players’ from under the counter’, and replaced with, ‘The sandwiches were not very interesting and the tea tasted stewed, so I left most of my ‘refreshments’. Mummy looked at the remains on my plate and frowned, and I could see that she was wondering about my apparent lack of appetite.’

Dialogue is removed. ‘… “The Horseman”, which is a paper you can never buy on the bookstalls but have to order, and I simply can’t afford the one-and-three a week’, is replaced with, ‘… “Horse and Hound” which is a paper you have to order and I simply can’t afford it.’

• Pg 28/25. ‘I couldn’t tell about Saturday, even to my school friend’ has been deleted.

• Pg 29/26. ‘when he was in the R.A.F. in the war’ replaced with ‘in an accident’

Rapide is Here

• Pg 36/33. ‘soul-less’ to ‘soulless’.

• Pg 38/35. ‘twenty-ton tank’ to ‘ton of bricks’.

Some People will do Anything!

Pg 41/37. ‘pulling the ends of my plaits’ to ‘nursing my knee’.

• Pg 50/47. A STABLE FOR JILL becomes A Stable for Jill.

That Pony Again

Pg 51/48. Richmond Horse Show replaced with Royal International Horse Show.

Pg 52/49. ‘soul-less’ to ‘soulless’.

• Pg 53/49. ‘in a sort of a tramshed’ replaced with ‘in a large, empty hall’.

Pg 156/157. Jill on Rapide heading for a gorse fence being watched by Martin, Catherine, Captain Cholly-Sawcutt, and others. A horsebox is being loaded in the background.

About Jane Badger

I’m a freelance writer, editor and proof reader. I’ve written Heroines on Horseback (2019), a gallop through the pony book in children’s fiction, and have written the world’s largest website on equine literature.

I've now started up a publishing company dedicated to bringing classic pony fiction back into print.